Posted on: Friday, August 15, 2003
Budget cuts by DOE
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
Although Gov. Linda Lingle specifically requested that high school athletics be exempt from budget restrictions, the Department of Education said it was forced to make restrictions anyway to accommodate other areas.
The DOE has been asked to reduce its budget from $32 million to $20 million.
Lingle refuted reports her administration ordered budget restrictions on "school level-based funding," such as athletics.
"I don't know where this bad information is coming from," Lingle said.
She said the restrictions are being made by the DOE.
Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said the DOE had no choice but to make across-the-board restrictions to accommodate other areas of the DOE that weren't exempt by the governor.
"In order for everyone to operate, everyone has to tighten up their belts," Hamamoto said. "Otherwise, programs will be eliminated."
Since the state released money to departments for only the first quarter of the 2003-04 fiscal year, high school athletic programs have been making contingency plans to adjust for an 18.5 percent restriction imposed by the DOE. The first-quarter allocation for athletics was $1.13 million for 44 public high schools statewide.
A concern of the DOE was not getting its allocation in a lump sum as it had in the past.
Dwight Toyama, the DOE's athletics administrator, said the DOE can plan accordingly when it knows how much money it has to work with.
The O'ahu Interscholastic Association, of which Toyama is its executive secretary, and the Maui Interscholastic League have already taken measures to account for the restrictions. The OIA is trimming some fall sports schedules and the MIL is instituting a cap on the number of players who can travel by air for league games. The MIL has schools on Maui, Lana'i and Moloka'i. Toyama added that there is informal discussion of public schools withdrawing from state tournaments to reduce expenses. Hawai'i High School Athletic Association executive director Keith Amemiya said he will speak with the leagues' executive secretaries before commenting.
Lingle yesterday said a lump sum for athletics will be released in October, the start of the second fiscal quarter. Hamamoto said she has not heard of that because she has not seen all of her correspondences yet and reserved comment until then.
On Tuesday, Lingle, state Director of Budget and Finance Georgina Kawamura, Amemiya and Hana High athletic director Keith Morioka (representing the Athletic Directors and Coaches Association) discussed the budget situation. Noticeably missing were DOE officials. Lingle said Toyama was invited to attend, but said she was told he was ordered not to attend by Hamamoto.
"The DOE would not allow him to attend the meeting," Lingle said. "They didn't want him to get accurate information."
Added Hamamoto: "I don't know who provided this information because no one asked me if Dwight could go. If they asked me, I would've sent him to the governor's meeting."
